Briefs

Jun 11, 2001

Patent office taps CIO

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hired Doug Bourgeois, a former FedEx Corp. executive, as its new chief information officer. He was most recently managing director of customer service technology at FedEx, where he managed the computer application and telephony network environments.

Advancing e-government initiatives, including electronic filing and the automated internal examination process, tops his agenda, Bourgeois said. He plans to use his FedEx experience to build upon the e-government strategy already in place at USPTO "by being customer focused from a servicing perspective," he said.

One key FedEx philosophy Bourgeois said he hopes to incorporate within the Office of the CIO is the concept of "people, service, profit." Take care of the employees first, and they will continue to take care of the customers, he said. Managing people to deliver results "is on my agenda."

Army: No go on outsourcing

Army officials have no plans to outsource their technical infrastructure despite recent pressure from Congress and recognition that information technology management needs to improve.

David Borland, the Army's deputy chief information officer, said last month that service officials want to drive down IT support costs and ensure that their systems can exchange information. Many individual Army organizations currently set up their own systems and end up paying their own support costs.

The Army needs to revamp its basic IT infrastructure. But, "will we do something like [the Navy Marine Corps Intranet]? Probably not," said Borland, speaking at the Army Small Computer Program conference in Baltimore. "We don't know how we're going to acquire the infrastructure piece."

A two-year campaign that prompted the Department of Homeland Security to issue its first-ever emergency directive to agencies to shore up cyber defenses appears in part to have been an attempt to spy on U.S. government internet traffic.